Career information

Events related to this officer

19 Jun 1941HMS Vanessa is damaged by a German aircraft while on patrol in the North Sea. She suffered a direct amidships, blowing up boilers, the fore funnel was blasted overboard, and the deck opened up. Eleven ratings and the engineer officer were killed and many of the crew were injured and burned. The damaged destroyer collided with anti-submarine trawler HMS Turquoise. Vanessa was towed to Yarmouth by destroyer HMS Vesper.

5 Aug 1941HMS La Malouine (T/Lt. V.D.H. Bidwell, RNR) picks up 59 survivors from the British merchant Kumasian that was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-74 west of Ireland in position 53°26'N, 15°40'W.

9 Jul 1942HMS La Malouine (Lt. V.D.H. Bidwell, RNR) picks up 30 survivors from the American merchant John Witherspoon that was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-255 about 20 nautical miles from the shore of Novaya Zemlya in position 72°05'N, 48°30'E.

2 Apr 1943HMS La Malouine (Lt. V.D.H. Bidwell, RNR) picks up survivors from the British merchant Katha that was torpedoed by German U-boat U-124 and sunk about 320 nautical miles west of Oporto, Portugal in position 41°02'N, 15°39'W.